


Washington 



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«^THE 22d OF FEBRUARY 



From 



THE "PENNSYLVANIA INQUIRER" OF FEB. 22, 1851. 






Printed by L. R. Bailey. 



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The following Sketch from the Philadelphia " Pennsyl- 
vania Inquirer" of the 22d February, 1851, signed Medi- 
ator, is understood to have been written by Mr. Rush. It 
is republished in its present form, for private circulation, 
and, it may be added, without any agency or knowledge 
on his part. 



THE 22d OF FEBRUARY. 



" Time^ which is continually washing away 
the dissoluble fabrics of other Poets, passes 
without injury by the adamant of Shah speared 

If Johnson uttered the above sentiment of 
the greatest dramatic poet of our language, 
with how far more potent a sweep over the 
feelings and destiny of men and nations, may 
it be said of Washington, that time, however 
it may obscure or diminish the fame of other 
statesmen, is perpetually brightening the 
imperishable tablets of his. 

And if Lamartine, when the whirlwind of 
the late French Revolution was confounding 
all safe principles in free government, and 
sweeping away man after man, raised up as 
the ephemeral idols of deluding and dangerous 
applause, exclaimed, that " the want of the 
AGE WAS A European Washington," with 
how much deeper an interest ought not all of 



us here in America to lay to heart, on this 
anniversary of his birth-day, the precepts of 
his matchless wisdom and almost super-human 
virtue? 

His Farewell Address to the people of the 
United States, on laying down the Presidency, 
at the end of the eighth year after he had ex- 
ercised it, has become like household words in 
every American family. 

His address to Congress at Annapolis, on 
resigning his military commission as Com- 
mander-in-Chief of the armies of the Revolu- 
tion, presents a transcendent instance of the 
moral sublime. If the great Conde was seen 
to shed tears at the performance of one of Cor- 
neille's tragedies, where Csesar is made to 
utter a fine sentiment, what American heart 
can ever remain unmoved whilst reading this 
majestically simple, yet infinitely touching 
address? Manly tears have moistened many 
an eye in perusing it. The long, doubtful, 
and bloody war ended ; its object accomplished 
in the establishment of the independence and 
liberties of his country, mainly through his 
own unconquerable firmness and never-dying, 
ever-active patriotism ; all his toils and solici- 
tudes at length over — then it is that, at a 



public audience, rendered impressive in the 
highest degree by the innate dignity of his 
form and presence, he comes forward, and, 
amidst a breathless silence in Congress and all 
spectators, bids '' an affectionate farewell to 
the august tody under rvliose orders he had so 
long acted^ and resigns with satisfaction the 
appointment he accepted with diffidence ^ 
Such was the modest lano^uao^e of a man 
whom no dangers could appal, whose spirit 
ever rose in proportion to their magnitude, 
and who, had he obeyed the impulses of his 
eager, native valor, would have ruined his 
country, instead of keeping her safe in the 
gloomiest of times, and crowning her at last 
with supreme victory and glory, by mingling 
the qualities of Fabius With those of Mar- 
cellus. 

Appropriately did the President of Congress 
reply to this beautiful address, that the ^^ glory 
of his virtues would not terminate with his 
military command, hit continue to animate 
remotest agesP May they help to guide our 
footsteps in this stage of our national exist- 
ence ! We should pay hini but a blind rever- 
ence if, contenting ourselves with only eulo- 
gistic words, and none can come up to his 



transcendent deeds, we fail to be influenced in 
our conduct by what he said and did. 

These two memorable addresses are familiar 
to the community. Less generally so is his 
letter of June, '83, written officially to the 
Governors of the several States. Seeing this 
document lately referred to in a manner very 
striking, I took from my library the English 
Annual Register for that year, in w^iich I 
found it ; for even then the fame of its author 
had gone forth world-wide. Marshall, to 
whom I have since turned, of course gives it. 
He calls it the " i^aternal and affectionate Let- 
ter" of the great Chief The introductory 
part is as follows: ''The object for which I 
had the honor to hold an appointment in the 
service of my country being accomplished, I 
am now preparing to resign it into the hands 
of Congress, and to return to that retirement 
which, it is well known, I left with the great- 
est reluctance ; a retirement for which I have 
never ceased to sigh through a long and pain- 
ful absence, and in which (remote from the 
noise and trouble of the world), I meditate to 
pass the remainder of life in a state of undis- 
turbed repose. But before I carry this resolu- 
tion into effect, I think it a duty incumbent 



upon me, to make this my last official com- 
munication ; to congratulate you on the glo- 
rious events which Heaven has been pleased to 
produce in our favor ; to offer my sentiments 
respecting some important subjects which ap- 
pear to me to be intimately connected with 
the tranquihty of the United States ; to take 
my leave of your Excellency as a public 
character; and to give my final blessing to 
that country in whose service I have spent 
the prime of my life, for whose sake I have 
consumed so many anxious days and watchful 
nights, and whose happiness, being extremely 
dear to me, will always constitute no incon- 
siderable part of my own. Impressed with 
the liveliest sensibility on this pleasing occa- 
sion, I will claim the indulgence of dilating 
the more copiously on the subjects, of our 
mutual felicitation. When we consider the 
magnitude of the prize we contended for, the 
doubtful nature of the contest, and the favor- 
able manner in which it has terminated, we 
shall find the greatest possible reason for 
gratitude and rejoicing." 

After some intervening passages in the 
spirit of the foregoing, the letter proceeds to 
its grand purpose. 



''There are four things," says the great 
writer, " which I humbly conceive are essen- 
tial to the well-being, I may venture to say to 
the existence, of the United States as an inde- 
pendent power. 

1st. "An indissoluble union of the states 

UNDER ONE FEDERAL HEAD. 

2d. '^A sacred regard to public justice. 

3d. " The adoption of a proper peace estab- 
lishment. And 

4th. " The prevalence of that pacific and 
friendly disposition, among the people of the 
United States, which will induce them to 

FORGET THEIR LOCAL PREJUDICES AND POLITICS, 

to make those mutual concessions which are 

REQUISITE TO THE GENERAL PROSPERITY, and, 

in some instances, to sacrifice their indivi- 
dual ADVANTAGES TO THE INTEREST OF THE 
COMMUNITY." 

How precisely apposite to our present con- 
dition, how awakening to us all, these distinct 
propositions, here stated as if to be called up 
for our political salvation at this era ? They 
foreshadow the substance of the federal con- 
stitution as afterwards formed in 1789. 
Throughout the remainder of the letter the 
heads laid down are each dilated upon with 



the force of reason, and in the tone of moral 
elevation characteristic of his majestic mind. 
I say that my attention was strikingly called 
to this circular letter to the Governors of the 
old thirteen States, vi^hen the war closed. It 
was in the National Intelligencer of the 16th 
of last month, that I saw it noticed thus: 
"This letter, much less known and studied 
than the Farewell Address of Washington, is 
worthy, for its fervid patriotism and profound 
political wisdom, of being engraved, by the 
side of that Address, on the base of the monu- 
ment now rising on the banks of the Potomac 
to his memory." These are emphatic words. 
They convey exalted homage, but not too ex- 
alted. They are given editorially. I select 
them from one of a series of numbers, in all 
five, which have appeared in that paper in the 
course of the last and present month, each 
quite elaborate, and all bearing upon the pre- 
sent position of South Carolina towards the 
Union. They are replete with facts and re- 
flections spreading over the past, applicable to 
the present, and piercing into the future. If 
the judgments of some might not accede 
to all the points they cover, every reader will 
see in these discussions, the marks of superior 



10 

ability and enlargement. The number which 
appeared on the 18th of January, is a resume, 
in the spirit of history, of political events in 
their broad outline, since the beginning of the 
government, chiefly selected and interv^oven, 
however, to illustrate the Carolina topics, with 
their various adjuncts of tariffs, primary con- 
ventions, nullification and secession. What- 
ever opinions these veteran editors may ever 
entertain, their thoughts run in a states- 
man-like strain. Longer established at the 
seat of government than any others — where 
the best political information and intercourse 
are attainable; constantly associating with 
the foremost men of the land, and distin- 
guished foreigners, to whose conversation and 
friendship their merits have fully commended 
them, their advantages have been pre-eminent, 
and their own enlarged capacities have 
abundantly improved them. It has so come 
to pass, that their journal, for nearly half 
a century, has held on to the tenor of its course, 
uniting decorum with intellectual ability and 
power. This is an enviable lot ; and its con- 
tinuance through a period so long, is a rare 
lot for any daily journal, in any country, 
where party spirit is ever prevailing, with its 



11 

roughness, its bitterness, its exaggerations, and 
its misleading passions ; and it moreover hon- 
orably attests, that the restraining spirit of 
gentlemen when carried into the editorial pro- 
fession, will, after all, lay the most enduring 
claims to public favor and respect in news- 
papers that observe it. 

If I pay a passing tribute to this prominent 
and long established journal, the explanation 
is, that the discussions to which I have alluded 
in its columns have prompted me to this com- 
munication. Able as they are, and national and 
patriotic as is the spirit in which they are con- 
ceived, I cannot forbear, under all the actual 
circumstances of our country, the interposition 
of something in the nature of a present caveat as 
to some things that struck me whilst perusing 
them. I do not, I cannot, deny facts which 
they bring into view respecting South Caro- 
lina. Too many of them are but too well 
founded ; but I would wish to shut out, at this 
epoch, conclusions which these discussions 
would seem to think inevitable. I cannot, 
will not, think Carolina yet lost to the Union. 
Sad would be that loss. Greatly the more sad, 
when I look at the ample list presented in one 
of the numbers, of eminent and accomplished 



12 

Carolinians; a list very remarkable, considering 
the relative smallness of the State, who have 
been in high service under the general govern- 
ment; and when I recall the other names to 
which she could proudly point, known to na- 
tional fame, which are not upon that list. To 
the last, I will still hope for her allegiance to 
the Union, w^hich, in her day, she has so 
greatly honored, by the genius, the cultivation, 
the useful services, and lofty spirit of her sons. 
It will never be too late for her to reconsider 
her own adverse determinations, even if she 
may have gravely formed them. 

If change of mind be sometimes the highest 
merit in individuals, for communities to change, 
on conviction of sufficient grounds, would only 
be evincive of still higher magnanimity and 
wisdom. I cling then to the hope, that the 
great name of Washington may not be with- 
out its effect in awakening her to the recon- 
sideration of her purposes, and that this anni- 
versary of his birth-day, may be improved to 
so great an end. Some of the most illustrious 
of her sons were the companions of Washing- 
ton, his most cherished, most confidential 
friends, in council and in the field. Will his 
mighty name go for nothing among the des- 



13 

cendants of those renowned and gallant Caro- 
linians who lived with him, counselled with 
him, w^ent to battle and to victory with him ; 
a name that concentrates the wisdom of ages 
and of millions ? Will they forget all that he 
said, all that he did, in favor of the Union, 
both before and after it was formed? Will 
they take the last step^ without weighing his 
advice to forego local feelings, and even to 
make, to some extent, individual sacrifices, 
rather than lose the unspeakably preponder- 
ating benefits of Union? Again I say that 
I cannot, will not, yet believe it. 

Mediator. 



